Not Quite Human
by Jhonie
Summary: There are nine Strawhats. There are also nine Bijuu. Add some J inventiveness and this happens. Basically, this is the story of One Piece, as it would have been if the strawhats were Bijuu. Never mess with Luffy's pillows! Nakamaship, probably no pairings
1. In which Luffy Burns Down the House

**J's latest brainstrange. Enjoy the fucked-uppedness.**

**Disclaimer: Gel pens are awesome. Especially when you have many. With different shiny colours. You should try them sometime.**

**Edit: Since it seems to be bugging off more people than it should, I now have started writing Ruffy with an L, so kindly stop bugging me about it. **

* * *

**Chapter One**

**In which Luffy Burns down the House**

* * *

On this odd planet of water, strange and unnatural things are, to be damn frank, quite commonplace. Floating islands, merfolk and giant sea serpents, more commonly referred to as Sea Kings, are just about daily occurrence. Anyone who's been around and travelled a bit could tell you the most otherworldly stories about just about everything you can imagine and then some. These stories would have you gaping at the traveller's face in disbelief , not realising that every word he just told you was true. Yes, anyone knowing about more than the safe confines of the own village would be able to tell you that this world was not one without a shitload of oddities.

There were even dragons out there, not to mention the strange phenomena known as 'Devil's fruits'.

Demons, however, was an entirely different issue. Even if you asked one of the veteran pirates of the New World, they would be able to tell you nothing about actual _demons_. Nobody had seen them, nobody knew them, very few outside of a handful of oddball sects even believed in them.

They would soon be proved wrong. Very wrong. Like they had so many other times before.

They weren't numerous, the demons. By any means, no. There were, in fact, no more than nine of them. They lived among humans, looked like humans, they were even birthed by humans.

Well, except for one of them, of course.

These nine people would soon become known across the globe as the nine Bijuu. The Tailed Beasts. Spread over almost half the globe, the nine had no knowledge of one another, and lived under very, very different circumstances.

One, thrown out of his herd at young age, living on an island of snow, now studying under one of the greatest doctors known to man.

The second, sailing alone on the eastern seas, relentlessly stealing treasure under the nose of the ruthless pirates that owned them.

The third, living on a small, idyllic island without his parents since he was seven, constantly weaving the craziest stories he could think of.

The fourth, running an underground Bounty Hunting and Demolition company in the city of water.

The fifth, working as the sous chef of the restaurant sailing upon the waters of East Blue.

The sixth, drifting endlessly in a sea without a sun, on a ship without a rudder. Without a crew, without a shadow.

The seventh, sailing the east seas as a bounty hunter, seeking to hone his skills so that he one day might challenge a certain man and win.

The eighth, working in the shadows, side by side with a warlord, constantly hiding from the government that is hunting her for even existing.

And then, the ninth, sailing merrily away in a dinghy, his only cargo a barrel of food, with no specific goal in mind.

Nine different people. Nine different lives. Nine different goals. The chances that they would all meet upon this vast sea was pretty much a million to one.

But as the Theory of Narrative Causality states, million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.

Now, let's take a look at the ninth one, shall we?

He was a young boy, approximately seventeen years of age. He was a bit on the short and scrawny side of things and dressed in a simple blue vest and black shorts. He would have taken the red vest, but Makino, the bar owner of his hometown and his older-sister figure, had fiercely insisted that it clashed with his hair, so he took the blue one instead. It wasn't like he cared that much, and women were scary. Especially older-sister figures.

But his most distinctive features were his vibrant, blood-red hair, goofy grin and the scar below his left eye. Not to mention his Hat.

Ah yes, the Hat, his promise to Shanks. Passed down from one redhead to the other.

This young boy was Monkey D Luffy, self-proclaimed future King of the Pirates. He was also the nine-tailed fox demon.

He was also steering straight towards a massive maelstrom. Or not really steering, per se, because that would mean it was intentional. And that would just be plain stupid. Especially as he was very much unable to swim.

You see, in addition to the whole 'demon'-thing, he had accidentally eaten a devil's fruit around ten years prior, believing it was a normal melon. He had been hungry for a snack. It tasted like crap, though.

As a result, things looked even worse than it already should for the young fox, so he decided to do the only logical thing to do. That is, hop inside the now empty barrel, shut the lid tight and take a nap.

Well, Luffy-logic seldom agreed with the logic of the rest of the world, did it?

* * *

**Sometime later. Somewhere.**

* * *

Luffy was following his nose. Since his stomach was finally full, priority one on his 'interesting things'-list was now the smell that had been haunting his nose ever since the moment he sat foot upon the small island. It was a strangely familiar smell, which was strange, because he had no memory of smelling anything similar ever before.

Curious as his nature was, Luffy decided to follow it. To prioritize it higher even than to investigate this 'Zoro'-guy. Since he was imprisoned, it wasn't like he was going anywhere. Scents, however, could disappear at any time. Or at least the sources could.

Imagine his surprise, then, when the trail led to the marine base. Or more specifically, one small cellar window, barred with a strong iron grid. But not strong enough to keep him out.

With a flick of his fingers, Luffy unsheathed his claws and started burning through the offending bars.

"What are you _doing?_" came a hushed protest from his left. Oh yes, that boy, Coby, was still there.

Coby was a young boy who he had ended up rescuing from some pirate hooligans pretty much while passing by. He had ended up getting a new boat, a temporary navigator and information about this Zoro-guy, though, so it hadn't been a complete waste of time and effort, but the kid's whining was slowly but surely starting to get on his nerves.

"What's it look like?" Luffy said. "I'm following a trail."

"A trail?"

Luffy grinned as the last bar gave way.  
"Something smells interesting down there."

"Interesting?"  
Coby peeked through the window, only to jump back and somehow managing to pull off the pretty much impossible feat of yelling and whispering at the same time.  
"Th- Th- gaah!"

Luffy gave the pinkette a questioning look.  
"What?"

"Green hair, three golden earrings, haramaki… no doubt about it, that's Roronoa Zoro!"

Well wasn't that handy. The source of point of interest number one was point of interest number two. This time, he took a proper look inside the window that he had been trying to open.

What he saw wasn't the supposed fearsome beast or bloodthirsty devil that the people seemed to so enjoy to portray the man as. What he saw was a very tired and very hungry young man, heavily chained to a dungeon wall. He looked like he had been chained there for some time. With a frown, Luffy quickly melted away the hinges and removed the rest of the window.

"What are you doing? Luffy?"

"What does it look like? I'm going in."

"He's gonna kill you!"

"How?"

Coby promptly ignored this.  
"What if the marines see you?"

"What if the marines see _you?_" Luffy calmly countered, grinning. That shut the younger boy up for a few seconds.

"I'm going in."

"_L__uffy!_"

* * *

**Inside the Cell, Earlier that day**

* * *

Zoro clicked his tongue, tasting the air. There had been a distinct smell of fox lacing the air for a good while now. Fox, with a strong tint of dangerous, but not hostile. Fox, with a strange edge of familiar. There wasn't really anything he could do about it, though, chained down like he was.

Heh. Chained down. Despite his situation it brought a wide grin to his face when he thought of the reason why he was, instead of tied up to that wooden cross in the yard, as they had originally intended.

The ropes hadn't been nearly enough to hold him down.

So they had put him in chains and decided to starve him to death. He knew that now. They had no intention of letting him go after a month.

A month had already passed, after all.

He stopped counting the days beyond that point. Hell, he was too tired by that time to even turn. If he hadn't been, he would have been long gone by now.

He was weary. He was hungry. He may be known for his will of unshakeable steel, but over a month had passed without food and that was enough for even that steel to beging to rust.

It was by that point that that peculiar scent of fox appeared. There had just been something about it that strengthened his diminishing flame of hope, but he couldn't for his life say why.

* * *

"What's it look like? I'm going in."

"He's gonna kill you!"

_Marines?_

"How?"

"What if the marines see you?"

_Not marines, then._

"What if the marines see _you?_"

_The scent was strong. Stronger than before. Huh? Window's gone._

"I'm going in."

_Stupid. Going in? Here? The cell's monitored._

"_Luffy_!"

_A name. Who?_

There was a small flicker of flame, followed by a low 'thud'. It was more of a struggle than he would have wanted, but Zoro managed to raise his head enough for his fringe to part far enough for him to see the intruder.

He was met by a grinning redhead, not even two feet away from his face, slit eyes alit with joy. Not the mocking kind of joy, mind. No, rather a carefree 'I'm a damn happy guy and there ain't shit you can do about it' kind of joy. If he hadn't been chained to a wall, and eaten within the last week, he would have jumped.

"Mantis," said the boy, as if it was the answer to everything. To Zoro, it struck an odd chord.

"What?"  
It came out quite raspy. More raspy than he would have wanted.

"You smell like a Mantis," the redhead repeated. It brought an odd but wide grin to the weary swordsman's face.

"Well, you reek of Fox."

Somehow, the boy's eyes lit up further, returning to Zoro his private space.  
"So, you're Roronoa Zoro, right?"

"That's my name."  
It hurt to talk, but it was getting easier.

"Best swordsman in the east?"

"So they say."

"I'm Monkey D Luffy. Nice to meet you!"

He managed a chuckle.  
"Circumstances could be better."

The Redhead's eyes lit up in amusement and an odd sort if approval.  
"I'm forming me a pirate crew."

"Oh?" Zoro coughed. "Well, good luck with that. You know this room is monitored, right?"

The redhead simply pointed at a very certain spot on the wall. "Was."

Turning his head slightly, Zoro could see the spot Luffy had pointed at. The surveillance den-den mushi that had been monitoring his cell had been knocked out, and was now covered in scorch marks. The swordsman mentally nodded to himself. The kid wasn't too bad.  
"Clever. They'll be coming soon, though."

The younger boy just grinned.  
"I'll be gone by then, then!"

"Heh," Zoro chuckled. "So, I suspect you intended to free me and make me join you, huh?"

Luffy tipped his hat slightly.  
"I was probably gonna bust you out anyway, but yeah. Something like that."

The rugged swordsman smirked to himself. Normally, he would never consider such a proposal, but this was different. He was on Death's door, no matter how much he wanted to deny it. This was not normally, and this was likely to be the only chance he got. And while he couldn't really explain it, he had a good feeling about this strange redhead.

"Get me my swords back and I'll consider it."

That was his answer, and Luffy seemed happy with it. The odd teen disappeared like a flickering flame seconds later, as hurried steps were heard in the corridors.

But all the marines saw when they rushed in was a slightly sooty patch on the wall and their chained prisoner, who seemed to be in a lot better spirits than last time they saw him.

* * *

**Outside the base, with Luffy and Coby**

* * *

"Are you _mad?_"

"People keep telling me that... Why do they keep telling me that?"

Coby was, naturally, quite exasperated.  
"You offered to break Zoro out? _The _Zoro!?"

"Yes," was Luffy's calm, if puzzled reply. He really didn't see why people were so afraid of that guy.

"He's a demon!"

"Well, so am I."

That one completely flew over Coby's head; a phenomena known as selective ignorance. "He'll kill you the moment his hands are unbound! He'll kill everyone!"

"He can't kill me."

"You don't know that!"

"It takes a lot to kill me."

"Stop being so carefree!"

"Shouldn't_ I_ be telling _you _that?"

The sudden change in his companion's manner brought the pinkette's pace to a halt.  
"Huh?"

Luffy looked back at him, jovial grin replaced by a dead serious expression that seemed oddly out of place on the cheerful boy. It was as if he had been replaced by an entirely different person. This was what his nakama would eventually come to refer to as his 'Captain-mode', and when he entered it, you'd better listen. This might have been the first and likely only time that Coby would experience this, but he would likely remember it for a long time.

"I'm going in there to get Zoro's swords, then I'm gonna break him out of there. If you're serious about your dream of becoming a marine, you can't be seen with me. You'll be seen as my accomplice, ergo a pirate. Pirates can't become marines."

Coby's face fell. "But-"

"You go back to the restaurant. I'll be fine." Luffy let his grin return. "Besides, I took out Arvida in one punch, didn't I? I'm not going down that easily."

Coby wasn't very convinced, but he did back down. "Just be careful, all right?"

Luffy just grinned as he turned back to the marine base, while Coby continued down the road back to the town. Even if his hero was going to get into trouble, which was not so much a possibility as only a matter of time, he was probably just gonna get in the way, anyway. He couldn't fight, much less infiltrate a base, so what was he supposed to do? He was only human, after all...

* * *

**With Luffy**

* * *

Luffy was grinning widely as he approached the base again. The plan was simple. Sneak in, fetch sword, raid kitchen, burn down the house, bust Zoro out, sail towards the sunset. Flawless. Perhaps investigate what was going on up at the roof? Nah, not important. Finding Zoro's sword was more important.

Not seeing, hearing or smelling anyone in the close vicinity, our young hero quickly dropped down on all fours, changing into his one infiltration-friendly form, which was that of a common red fox, if a bit more to the red side of things. And with that, he was off.

Finding the trail was easy enough. While it was old, it wasn't that difficult to single out the second, smaller scent of mantis and steel in the building. It was true that sneaking around like this wasn't really his preferred area of expertise, but it never hurt to keep his skills up to notch every now and then.

* * *

**With Coby**

* * *

"Ah! Coby-san!"

Coby looked up from his grumbled musings to see Rika, the little town girl that he and Luffy had encountered earlier at the restaurant.  
"Oh, hi Rika."

"Where is Luffy-san?"

The pinkette gave her an exasperated sigh. "He's decided to bust Zoro out. The idiot's gonna-"

"Zoro-nii-san is alive?"

The little girl's outburst of surprise and joy quite caught Coby off guard. He had not expected such an infamous monster to be thought of with such affection.  
"Uh, yeah, he's alive…"

"And Luffy-nii-san is gonna get him out of there?"

"Uh…"  
The surprise at his friend's sudden elation to the affectionate suffix of nii-san was added to his already impressive mass of confusion.  
"Yeah, he is. Right now."

"Are they gonna be okay?"

"I think so."

Her smile diminished. "Are they?"

Coby faltered, before hurrying to reassure the girl. "They are. They'll definitely be ok! Definitely!"

Despite his surprisingly successful attempt at sounding reassuring and confident, he was actually assuring himself perhaps even more than he was comforting the girl.

* * *

**With Zoro**

* * *

Zoro was abruptly woken up to a really, really loud crash, lots and lots of screaming along with blaring alarms, intense heat and a slight sing-song yell of what sounded a lot like '_Burning down the House'_.

His now wide-awake eyes were met by the sight of a really large pile of rubble in the middle of his cell, a massive hole in the ceiling that seemed to go all the way up through the building, massive dust clouds covering the whole scene and an odd, flaming figure standing in the middle of it all.

It was Luffy, the man Zoro up till now had strongly suspected was nothing more than a figment of his fevered imagination. He was carrying three really large bags, diameter about as big as the youth was tall, as well as three very familiar swords. He was also carrying it all using his numerous red, swishing fox tails that went with the ears that had popped up on his head somewhere along the line.

This was how Zoro knew he _(probably) _wasn't hallucinating. His mind wasn't even halfway imaginative enough to make something like this up.

"Yo, Zoro!"  
The grin was there again, just as infectious as he remembered it.

"Yo."

"I got your sword. Didn't know which one was yours, so I took all three."

The green-headed swordsman grinned right back. "They're all mine. I fight using Santoryuu."

The alarms and yells seemed to fade away into obscurity.

"So, what do you say?"

Zoro grinned deviously, determined fire in his eyes right back at full blast. It was time to let this redhead know just what he signed up for.  
"Kid, know this; I fight for my own reasons. My goal is to become the greatest swordsman in the world. If you do something that gets in the way of that goal, your life ends on my blade."

Luffy's eyes matched his. Two people could play that game.  
"Sounds good to me. After all, that's the least you would expect from the first mate of the King of the Pirates."

He could work with that. He definitely could work with that. It had been a bit of an unwritten rule he had made up for himself, which was that if he was ever to work for someone, it would be someone with an ambition to match his own. This guy did just that. Outmatched his, even. That, and he was getting a pretty damn good feeling about this enigmatic redhead.

"Consider it a deal then, Captain. Now get me outta here."

* * *

**Un-beta-fied**

**How's that for a crossover? It got a bit crude, and short, I know. I might see over this some day. When it's raining and I have no internet access.**

** Questions will be answered by PM. **

**Until next time, go play some Skyrim. I swear, that game never gets boring... **


	2. In which Zoro might be hallucinating

**Let's see now… It's Friday, after school, which means it's now weekend. I'm currently playing Skyrim. I am in Helgen. **

**Lamest pun ever: achieved.**

* * *

**I would like to start this chapter by thanking Sharkteeth, who greatly inspired me with his/her fic Ten Tailed Strawhat, and my good friend Marcus, for enduring my endless chattering about plot ideas. **

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**In which Zoro might be hallucinating**

* * *

"Say, Rika?"

"Hm?"

"Is Zoro really evil, like everyone say?"

Rika shook her head furiously. "No, he isn't! It's the Morgans who are the bad guys!"

The Morgans. That is, Lieutenant Morgan and his son, Helmeppo. The corrupted duo was pretty much ruling the whole island with an iron fist. Or an axe fist, if one was going to be literal.

"Everyone's afraid of him, but he's real nice. See, Helmeppo had his pet wolves running free all over town. No one could stop them, or they'd be killed!" Rika explained, spontaneously bursting into story-teller mode. "One day, the wolves attacked me, but then, Zoro-nii-san was there! He saved me!"  
Rika shook her head sadly.  
"Helmeppo blamed me and my mother, as there was no way he could take Zoro down in a fair fight. Onii-san took the hit for us. It's all my fault…

The little girl paused here, biting her lip while hugging herself slightly for comfort. Coby, on the other hand, didn't know what to say, so he remained silent, waiting for the girl to continue her story.

"They tied him up to a pole," she said after a while. "They tied him up in the execution yard for all to see, like he was some kind of battle trophy! They gave him no food, no water, nothing! They promised! They promised they'd let him go if he survived for a month!"

"A month!" Coby exclaimed, horrified. "No one would survive that!"

Rika gave him a small 'hum' of agreement. "I… I managed to sneak out some food to him a few times. He… He survived. Somehow. A whole month of no food, no water and all of the humiliation from that bastard Helmeppo and his cronies! And they broke their promise! They didn't let him go!"

"But that's terrible!"

"That's not all! See, Zoro wasn't exactly happy when they broke their promise to him, so he broke loose from those ropes like it was nothing. Despite starving for a month! But still, he wasn't strong enough to escape. They threw him into the dungeon, chaining him down like some kind of murderer! It… It's been over a month since then, and I haven't been able to send down any food. I thought he was dead!"  
But then, she brightened up. "But now he's gonna be ok, ne? I'm so happy!"

Whatever reply Coby intended to come with, he didn't get the chance to utter as a massive explosion racked the town. Pandemonium followed. Most of the town dropped whatever they were doing and ran head over heels, either away from or towards the source. That is, the now burning marine base. Rika and Coby were among the latter group.

What met them was chaos, pure and simple. Half of the marine base had been reduced to smoldering rubble and the rest stood alight in tall, red flames, eagerly licking at the sky. And from the rubble, akin to a duo of war heroes, strode Luffy and Zoro, the latter heavily leaning on the former. Luffy, carrying three rather humongous bags of something, and Zoro, in very tattered clothing, munching on an onigiri while drinking from a bottle of what seemed to be some sort of alcoholic beverage. They seemed to be having a rather joking conversation about something, but they were too far away to make out any words.

The sight was enough to raise a shocked kind of morbid joy throughout the crowd.

But their joy was short lived. From the fires, like an army of the undead, rose the marines with vengeance.

One loud, commanding voice rose up above the roar of the fires, immediately dousing any joy that had lit up amongst the gathered crowd.

"Don't let them escape! Men, FIRE!"

* * *

**Meanwhile, with the two pirates**

* * *

"Did I tell you, Luffy; you're the craziest damn guy I've ever met."

"I honestly don't understand why people keep telling me that…"

Zoro just laughed out loud at his new captain and took another bite of his onigiri, all the while shamelessly letting said captain support most of his weight. There was no shame in just having survived over two months of starvation, after all.  
"Seriously, though. Burning down the whole place? Overkill, much?"

"Maybe," Luffy grinned, supporting his companion without any complaints. "It was part four of my plan, though."

"Really?" The swordsman gave the large bags a sideward glance. "Which part was 'Raid the kitchens'?"

"Part three."

"Oh."

Crickets would have chirped, had not any chances of there being any present been quite literally eaten away by fire.

"I wasn't even serious about that..."

"You weren't? Well, it _was_."

As you can see, the two pirates were merrily chatting along as if they had been companions for as long as they could remember, completely and utterly ignoring the quite intense fire behind them as well as the crowd a few tens of meters ahead of them. Perhaps they should have been a bit more attentive.

"Men, FIRE!"

As if a switch had been flipped, all sense of glee was gone from the air and Zoro cursed himself for letting himself be so careless. With a half-turn, he reached for his trusty swords as the sound of gunfire rang through the burning yard.

Only for him to freeze up at the sudden lack of support.

Between him and the bullets stood Luffy, shielding him from the bullets while grinning like a maniac. The world seemed to slow down.

Only for Zoro's brain to freeze up as well as he was forced to do a double-take of what had just occurred. His captain had just been peppered by a multitude of bullets and was decidedly _not_ lying in a bloody heap on the ground. No, the bullets had decided that the laws of reality was a boring and utterly worthless thing to take into consideration and had bounced right back. It took a few seconds for the poor swordsman to gather his wits enough to even say anything.  
"What the _hell_ was that?"

The red-head just chuckled, smiling like the sun, like he did not just get shot at by _half an army._  
"I ate the Gomu-Gomu no Mi."

Zoro found that his brain had grown rather fond of this newfound level of slow best described with the word 'derp'.  
"Wait, let me get this straight… You… are like me…"

"Yes."

"_And_ you ate a Devil's fruit?"

"Yes. Thought it was a snack, but yes."

"… I seem to be having trouble convincing myself I'm really not hallucinating."

So did the soldiers, apparently. It dawned on Zoro that confusion was a surprisingly effective battle tactic. Perhaps he should try it too when he had the chance. Judging by the way that the marines were still a bit too stunned to do much more than sputter gibberish it could make a lot of battles a lot easier.

Hum. Seems like the derp was wearing off.

"Zoro," Luffy said, having dropped down on all fours somewhere along the line. His previous happy smile had been replaced by a look that could only be described as dead serious. "Can you fight?"

That one short sentence blew away the last of his confusion like dry leaves in the wind. This was battle, where confusion got you killed. He smirked, which despite his starved form still managed to be quite menacing.  
"Swords at hand, heart still beating. I can fight."

* * *

**A few days later, with Coby**

* * *

Coby realized later on, that what he had witnessed that day was the birth of a legend. Luffy, taking the shape of a red, majestic fox, covering the field in playful flame, claws and tails striking down his opponents like a storm of feral fire, while Zoro struck from above, swords dancing in rhythm with the flames, dealing swift death from above like a harbinger of battle. The fight lasted no longer than two minutes.

Now, this description might seem a bit superfluous, and to be frank, it most certainly was. In reality, the battle was crude and not much more than a warm-up meant for them to test how their different styles meshed together. It had been a better match-up than either had anticipated and they ended up cracking jokes to one another through the whole thing.

Nor was there any dealing of "swift death" either, since the two had a silent agreement to only kill if necessary. The one exception was the Prick, who most referred to as Lieutenant Morgan.

Lieutenant Morgan, or the Prick, as Ruffy and his First Mate insisted upon calling him, had been their prio one target from the get-go, for obvious reasons. Even if neither of the two pirates were aware of the Prick's oppressive regime, he was the undeniable leader of the pack.

They had not expected the remaining marines to drop their guns and rejoice a lot the moment their leader fell. It was, however, not unwelcome. Zoro still needed a proper meal, after all. And a shower. And clothes that weren't halfway torn to shreds. And a shave, according to the man himself.

The local ladies, however, did _not_ agree. In the end, Zoro was pretty much bullied into neither shaving nor cutting his hair back to his preferred length. That day, Roronoa Zoro got to know the true level of scary that feminine fanaticism could reach. He was almost happy when the marines demanded that they leave.

Ruffy just laughed his ass off at his partner's misfortune.

It was, however, in that gracefully deadly and overly superfluous manner that Coby remembered them as their little dinghy slowly disappeared beyond the horizon. He and Rika sat by the docks, watching the small speck grow smaller and smaller, further and further out of reach, each left to their own thoughts.

In the span of only a few days, Coby had his beliefs utterly and completely shattered and utterly jumbled up until he didn't know up from down. His greatest hero was now a carefree redhead of a fire-throwing pirate, and a marine officer was the most evil and corrupt man he had ever been unfortunate enough to encounter. It had always been his great dream to capture bad guys, but what if that bad guy was a marine? If he was a marine as well, he couldn't do that without having to go through a bucket load of bureaucracy, which could take months, if not years! And all the while, the bad guy would be left free to do whatever he pleased. Just like Morgan had.

Worse yet, if he signed up, he might be forced to follow the orders of such a person. And even if a pirate was a kind and just person like Luffy, he'd still be forced to arrest them. The world just didn't make sense anymore.

Rika, on the other hand was gazing at the sea with a determined flame burning steadily in her eyes. While her body-language suggested otherwise, curled up, hugging her knees tightly to her chest as she was, her face was set in a mask of solid steel.

"Coby?"

"Hm?"

"I've decided."

"Oh?"

"I'm gonna become a bounty hunter."

"Eh?"

"And not just any bounty hunter! I'm gonna become the best bounty hunter the world's ever seen!"  
She stood up, turning towards the now very much stunned pinkette. "What do you say, Coby? Want to come with me?"

Coby just stared at her outstretched hand, at loss for words. Was it really that simple? All of his life, he had been dreaming of becoming a marine, and now, the very moment he began to doubt that dream, this brave little town girl pulls out a sudden, unexpected solution out of nowhere. The world made even less sense.

Bounty hunters didn't exactly carry much better of a reputation than the criminals they hunted, but they were free to make their own decisions. They picked out their own targets and since they were freelancers, they didn't answer to any superiors, unless forming a syndicate, of course. And if they were sneaky enough, they could probably put a corrupt marine or two in their place.

It was so simple and the timing was so ridiculously perfect that it was outright stupid. But then, he was starting to get kind of used to that kind of stupid. His answer?

"Hell yes!"

* * *

**Somewhere, where things are overly blue**

* * *

A few days later, far out at sea, our two heroes were facing a minor crisis. They had started off with three humungous bags of food, and now, only a few days later, they were all out. And that was with Luffy actually holding back his usual appetite to allow Zoro to eat enough to recover from his somewhat ridiculous leave of absence where food was concerned. Being the stupidly sturdy-ass bastard that he was, he was pretty much recovered by the second day. Which meant that Luffy could resume his usual pace.

At the beginning of the third day, they had two bags left. By nightfall, they were fresh out. Well, except for a few bottles of booze, which Zoro fiercely protected with a level of ferocity preceded only by the Balrog of Morgoth regarding the mines of Moria.

That day, Luffy learned that Zoro was very, very fond of his alcohol.

The facts remained, however. They were completely and utterly out of food and Zoro was down on his last bottle, which he didn't let out of his sight. To avoid wasting energy, the two instead decided to bond over a shared pastime of theirs.

Napping.

Luffy napped away somewhere within a large pile of pillows that he had conjured out of nowhere, somehow, while Zoro was perfectly content sleeping wherever there was enough space. One time he had tried taking one of his captain's many pillows, only to quickly learn that that was a very, very bad idea. He soon found out, however, that the redhead had no problem with him borrowing his pillows, just as long as he _didn't remove them from the pile._

This is how we now find our heroes. One lying somewhere in a large pile of pillows with the random tail sticking out from a few places, and the other leaning his head on one of the soft, stuffed squares while clutching a bottle of beer somewhat like how a child would a teddy.

The two were half-asleep until a loud 'caw' echoed through the waters. Zoro, being the First Mate, was the first to stir.  
"Oi, Luffy."

"Hmmnn?"

He pointed at the source of the caw. "Bird."

"Food."

They shared a quick glance, before breaking out in a short battle of rock-paper-scissor. Luffy somehow won all three rounds. The trademark cry of the Gomu-Gomu-no -Rocket cut through the air, which was shortly followed by a startled cry. Unfortunately, this startled cry did not hail from the bird.

After a loud and highly colorful string of curses befitting a sailor such as himself, Zoro took to the skies in pursuit of his wayward captain, but only after seeing that the large pile of pillows had mysteriously disappeared and grabbing his precious bottle.

Why did his captain have to be so damn careless?

* * *

**Otherwhere**

* * *

Following the direction that our two protagonists were travelling, there was a modestly sized port town. However, there were no people to be seen. No children playing on the streets, no bustling marketplace, no fishermen down by the port. There weren't even any people to be seen within the homes. It was, simply put, a ghost town. Well, except for a small dog, valiantly guarding a pet food store, and a cat-eyed ginger girl on one of the main streets, who was running for her life from a number of thugs.

And then, of course, there was the inn at the middle of the town, filled with a multitude of rowdy men. About a third of them were specifically perched on the roof. They were also aiming a rather menacing-looking cannon at our swiftly approaching heroes.

Not overly good...

* * *

**A bit short, but sufficient. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you all next time!**


End file.
